# NFTs An NFT is a digital asset that represents real-world objects like art, music, in-game items and videos. They are bought and sold online, frequently with crypto currency, and they are generally encoded with the same underlying software as many crypto currencies. Although they’ve been around since 2014, NFTs are gaining notoriety now because they are becoming an increasingly popular way to buy and sell digital artwork. A staggering $174 million has been spent on NFTs since November 2017. NFTs are also generally one of a kind, or at least one of a very limited run, and have unique identifying codes. “Essentially, NFTs create digital scarcity,” says Arry Yu, chair of the Washington Technology Industry Association Cascadia Blockchain Council and managing director of Yellow Umbrella Ventures. This stands in stark contrast to most digital creations, which are almost always infinite in supply. Hypothetically, cutting off the supply should raise the value of a given asset, assuming it’s in demand. But many NFTs, at least in these early days, have been digital creations that already exist in some form elsewhere, like iconic video clips from NBA games or securitized versions of digital art that’s already floating around on Instagram. For instance, famous digital artist Mike Winklemann, better known as “Beeple” crafted a composite of 5,000 daily drawings to create perhaps the most famous NFT of the moment, “EVERYDAYS: The First 5000 Days,” which sold at Christie’s for a record breaking $69.3 million. Anyone can view the individual images or even the entire collage of images online for free. So why are people willing to spend millions on something they could easily screenshot or download? Because an NFT allows the buyer to own the original item. Not only that, but it also contains built-in authentication, which serves as proof of ownership. Collectors value those “digital bragging rights” almost more than the item itself. ## BENEFITS OF APES NFT APES NFT Holders will Become member of the “APES Elite Club”. 5% Profit Sharing to all APES NFT Holders from Crypto Mini Games. Lifetime Crypto Trading Free (0% Fee) on APEX (APES Crypto Exchange) Free Entry in Yearly Benchmark Parties of APES Elite Club. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://apes-2.gitbook.io/the-age-of-apes/nfts.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.